With Donald Trump back in the White House and populist parties on the march across Europe, 2025 is set to be a step into the unknown for politics both at home and abroad. We take a look at how some of the UK’s most respected political journalists define the role of news brands
In a packed room in what seemed like an ordinary week at the end of May, journalist and commentator Alison Phillips opened Newsworks’ politics panel at Media360 by asking her panellists the question everyone was thinking: “Who is going to win?”
That balmy afternoon in Brighton, we were still none the wiser as to when the hotly awaited general election was actually going to happen. Fast forward 24 hours, Rishi Sunak stunned Westminster by announcing a snap poll in the pouring rain, setting into motion the Conservatives’ worst electoral defeat in their history.
While the timing might have come as a surprise, the impending vote had been grabbing the headlines since the New Year. Even before the year got going, 2024 was billed as one of the biggest years ever for global democracy, with over 3.5 billion people worldwide due to head to the ballot box.
As we now know, the billing didn’t disappoint: a hugely consequential set of elections saw a historic Labour landslide in the UK and anti-establishment parties on the march across Europe. Across the pond, the most consequential of them all — Donald Trump’s spectacular political comeback — promises far-reaching repercussions both for the United States and the rest of the world.
With economic, political and international stability at its most precarious in decades, the role of journalists to provide accurate information and incisive analysis during these all-important votes mattered more than ever.
Indeed, 2024’s relentless election cycle allowed news brands to step into their natural role: defenders of democracy making government accountable to the people. They ensure politicians and policies are properly scrutinised, helping millions of readers across a host of platforms make informed decisions about who they trust to represent the country in Downing Street.
This was a role Brits valued more than ever during the election year. A Newsworks/OnePoll survey in June found 88% of Brits valued trusted journalism to provide vital information in the lead-up to polling day, while the same survey found nearly a third of people were more engaged in politics in 2024 than the previous year.
The value millions of readers hold for quality political journalism is why Newsworks took some of the UK’s most respected journalists on the road in 2024. Over the course of both the British and US election periods, we held panels at media agencies and industry events where our journalists shared inside Westminster gossip, how the election outcome could affect readers’ lives at home and the UK’s relationships abroad, as well as the role journalism was playing in ensuring voters could make informed decisions at the ballot box.
Andrew Pierce, the Daily Mail’s consultant editor, summed this up in simple terms at The Media Leader Summit in June: “We are there on behalf of everyone who is voting in a general election to try to get to bottom of what [politicians] are really going to do with [their] money and taxes and to ask those probing questions.”
At Media360, The Telegraph’s executive editor Camilla Tominey pointed out news brands’ effectiveness in promoting social good through its campaigning: “I think we’re an easy target but compared to the bile that is published with impunity on the internet, we’re holding our heads up high and doing a respectable job.
She added: “You only have to look at the outcome of the infected blood inquiry yesterday to be reminded of the importance of journalism when it comes to doing precisely that… it’s because of press pressure.”
As well as a rising interest in politics and political journalism, the Newsworks/OnePoll survey highlighted the concern millions feel around what information they can and cannot trust online. Over half of Brits reported seeing or thinking they had seen fake news since Sunak called the election, rising to almost three quarters of 18–24-year-olds. Two thirds believed quality journalism could help combat rising misinformation and fake news online.
Speaking at The Media Leader Summit, Mirror associate editor Kevin Maguire pointed to how rising fake news was destabilising democratic societies across the globe: “Misinformation is growing. Once upon a time people used to mutter in pub corners and not get a big platform. Now they can get misinformation all over the web and people will fall for it — lies can get around the world before truth gets its boots on to try and chase it.”
He added: “We need more accountability, it’s the only way to do it, and established media is part of it.”
For Alison Phillips, trust was the key piece of the puzzle. “It’s the idea that across the spectrum of the British [news] industry, there is somewhere that represents views with content that have been fact-checked, legalled and is trustworthy”, she said.
And do advertisers have a role? Absolutely, according to Campaign editor Gideon Spanier, who introduced the Media360 panel.
“Advertisers have a dual responsibility”, he said. “Journalism is a great place to advertise because it is trusted [and] advertisers have a responsibility to support journalism because it is a civic good.”
WACL president and CEO of DCM Karen Stacey concurred at WACL’s event in October: “Advertisers have a dual responsibility to support journalism… after all context is everything.”
With the consequences of millions of voters across the globe only beginning to take shape, that role will surely remain vital in the weeks, months and years ahead.
